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At Twenty-four

Friday, 12 March 2010

I have been enjoying the return of movement in my fingers and have been busy making some more owls for my market tomorrow which you can see on my webshots page by copying and pasting the link below into your browser (if you've seen the others, you might want to 'jump' to the current ones by clicking on 3 at the bottom right of the white picture panel).

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/575948722JEguIc

I will be at the Markets in the Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens(near the Observatory Gate) from 9 to 2pm on Sat 13th March and then at the Abbotsford Convent Makers' Marketon Sun 21st March from 10 to 4pm. See you there!

Wow! How absolutely awful the past three weeks have been. I was laid low with a very nasty virus which hit at about 1am on Sun 21 Feb and when the alarm went off at 6am, it was in full party mode in my poor, sad, painful body leaving me in no shape for 'marketeering'. My first thought was to drug myself up with some Codral and 'soldier on' but my hubby breathed some sense into me with the most reasonable argument: that he could look after me (and the kids) on a Sunday, but not on a Monday. So, sure, I could go off to market and kill myself so that I would require a week to recover – with no additional support – or I could stay at home in bed and recover quicker. Well... the recovery was less than quick so goodness knows what might have been had I decided to head off to the Abbotsford Convent market after all. I was mostly recovered by Thurs and was in reasonable form for the craziness that was my daughter's school Fete on that Fri afternoon/evening.

That pretty much did it. I felt battered, but not beaten on the weekend which we spent down at Mornington taking it VERY easy. The weather was with us (i.e. cold) and meant that we spent most of our time inside watching videos, doing puzzles, and resting.

Back in Melbourne for Monday back at school and by Mon evening, most of the joints in my body had seized up and I was shuffling around like an 80 year old. It was awful and an incredible way to make me thankful for the usually pain-free, fluid movement that I enjoyed most of the time. I was not just stiff, but every movement was painful. As time went on, the pain, particularly in my feet and hands, got worse and my extremities started to swell. I took myself, slow shuffle by slow shuffle, to the doc on Wed and was relieved to hear that it was likely to be a short term problem. Relatively. 2-3 weeks was the expected recovery period, which, at the time, seemed like an eternity. I couldn't do anything. Well, I could, but it was slow and excruciatingly painful, so I didn't. I still needed to drop Tara off at school and Erin off at kindergarten (although she ended up being sick with my original virus from Tues to Thurs so we just blobbed on the couch together watching videos!) but driving the car was a disaster: limited head movement meant very slow and limited checking for other vehicles when turning anywhere and lack of grip with my hands meant turning corners was ridiculous. Any impatience for elderly drivers turning the corner in future will be no more. Ouch. I couldn't actually grip the wheel but used the side of my hands to push against the steering wheel struts. Very, very slow with painful jarring if I missed the hole!

During this time our house just became more and more messy. Getting dressed was achieved with help from my husband who was 'luckily' unwell and at home from Wed to Fri so could help with some things. Unfortunately, with my incredibly depleted immune system, I came down with hubby's mucous-filled virus last Sunday making for a completely miserable me. :o( On a positive note, my feet had started to loosen up and slowly, from the ground up, my whole body started moving more easily. Last to loosen up have been my hands which still suffer a little pain on making a fist and grasping things is still achieved gingerly. Back to the doctor's on Wed this week for a follow up appointment which ended up being about the 'new' virus with the double-sized head, sore throat and liquid cough with painful lungs. He finally felt that it had gone beyond a joke and we're now fighting back with some antibiotics which are helping me to feel human again. Tomorrow's market will find me rugged up with lots of suppressant medication and moving pretty carefully, but at least upright. Tara has joined me at home today with a rattling cough, and headache to keep it company. Poor love: I know exactly how she feels.

Focus on Art™ featured on other blogs

Liz Jones of Betty Jo, maker of fantastic jewellery art, did a piece on Focus on Art™ last year on her excellent blog with a focus on recycling/repurposing/reusing Find, Make, Do

27 Aug 2010

Skye Clark of StudioS, maker of fantastic jewellery art posted a little photo of Focus on Art’s™ ‘Tiny’ Kitchen Owl #54 on her Friday Finds blog. This one focused on handmade finds.

7 May 2010

This is another blog post I trawled up during my search of how much of the internet Focus on Art™ has conquered.Haute Nature – Reuse. Reclaim. Reimagine has our recycled owls listed in their “online resource guide to catalog smart creative reuse ideas, art, design and cutting edge eco inventions”. The entry included images of Kitchen Owl #14 ‘Happy little Vegemite’, #16 ‘Marge’ and #20 ‘Tiny Tim’.

21 April 2010

I recently found this blog post by Lauren Kilberg while doing some narcissistic searching for myself (Focus on Art™) in Google. Kitchen Owl #27 ‘I see Red’ and #24 ‘Stretch’ featured in her double takes blog called ‘Recycled Owls: Focus on Art’.

Comments below the photos in this album indicate if an owl is still available. To buy you can contact me via email at focus@stewardson.net

You can find my owls, as well as a wealth of other creative talent at In.cube8r, Fitzroy

Jazz up your walls with my art sold thru RedBubble

Redbubble is the best online way to buy my photography from outside Australia. If you live in Oz, my cards are available thru Etsy and MadeIt and if you'd like any prints from the same photographs you can contact me at focus (at) stewardson (dot) net.